Terri Schiavo Dies

That's the headline on MSN. A lot of internet ink has been spilled over this issue. Until now I've done little more than pray for right to be done in this matter. My prayer was not answered in the way I would have hoped, but that is God's choice. He remains sovereign regardless.

Where is Terri now that she has died? I hope she knew Christ. I have no knowledge of her background. She is in heaven with Christ if she embraced salvation by faith in Christ alone. If this was not true of her, I can find no place in Scripture where there is reason to hope that there is some special exemption. I suspect that some within the broad Christian context will make efforts to canonize her in some way. I hope SHE is with the Lord. I hope WE don't forget the Gospel.

So what have we learned? More specifically, the better question is what have I learned? My thoughts on this go beyond the right to life issue. I have no need to state a position that others articulate far better. What I learned or been reminded of from this mess is that we live in an evil culture.

Why is it that our culture is so eager for our kids to lose their sexual innocence? Why is sex outside of marriage glorified? We see regular statistics of the ruin of lives through unwanted pregnancy and sexually transmitted disease. Yet we see our culture rushing headlong to promote sexual expression and experimentation by our children. Why do they lie to our children? WHY?

Why is it that our culture is so eager to kill? Whether it be the inconvenience of a pregnancy or the killing of Terri Schiavo, why does our culture promote the death of human beings? Why do people get arrested for mistreating their parakeets and dogs, but the death of people made in God's eternal image is encouraged? WHY?

The answer is in Jesus' own words: John 8:44 - "You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and has nothing todo with the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies." (ESV). And as John says, "The whole world lies in the power of the evil one."

So that's what I've been reminded of or learned. We can legislate, we can picket, we can protest, we can blog, but ultimately we oppose only the pawns of the father of murder and lies.

But take heart. Jesus beat him big time. That's what this past weekend was all about.